Online hate in Canada: the growing reality and how to deal with it

Monday November 28, 2016, 2pm-4pm EST.

Sections 318 and 319 of the Criminal Code of Canada make it a criminal offence to advocate genocide, publicly incite hatred, and willfully promote hatred against an “identifiable group” which is defined as any section of the public distinguished by colour, race, religion, national or ethnic origin, age, sex, sexual orientation or mental or physical disability.

Section 2 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms guarantees freedom of thought, belief, opinion and expression to all Canadians. However, all Charter rights are subject to reasonable limits that can be demonstrably justified in a free and democratic society.

Regulations under the Broadcasting Act prohibit any licensee from broadcasting or distributing programming that contains abusive comments about individuals or groups – comments that would expose an individual, group, or class of individuals to hatred or contempt on discriminatory grounds.

Although these regulations apply to radio, specialty services, broadcast television and pay television, Internet-based communications do not fit the definition of “broadcasting.” The internet has become an essential means for people to access information and services but the downside of this unparalleled information exchange is that, alongside its many valuable resources, it also offers a host of offensive materials – including hateful content – that attempt to inflame public opinion against certain groups of people.

Our panel of experts addressed issues such as:

What is the nature of online hate in Canada?

Why is it so difficult to address online hate?

What are the links between online hate and racist violence or radicalization?

Dr. Abbee Corb

Abbee is a consultant with a globally recognized expertise in the areas of hate, extremism and radicalization. She designs and implements CVE initiatives, (de)radicalization and disengagement programs.She has spent the past 16 years acting in the capacity of consultant to the Law Enforcement and Intelligence Community, and has spent a great many years dealing with open source intelligence and extremism. Corb was recently made Fellow at the German Institute of Radicalisation and Deradicalisation Studies and sits on advisory boards of various organizations.

Abbee has a PhD in Criminology, a Masters in Terrorism and Intelligence Studies and bears the designations of CAS (Certified Anti-Terrorism Specialist) and CMAS (Certified Master Anti-Terrorism Specialist), and was named a Kentucky Colonel for her valuable contribution to the global Law Enforcement community. Having worked in the field of hate and extremism for over 20 years, she began her career dealing with internet based hatred and right wing extremists with the Simon Wiesenthal Centre.

Abbee has provided instruction and lectures to law enforcement and government agencies, such as the RCMP and FBI, around the world, and has also lectured at British Parliament in the UK, Cambridge University, has provided testimony at the Canadian Parliamentary Hearings on Anti-Semitism, and was a participant in the Global Forum and International Parliamentary Coalition to Combat Anti-Semitism.

Tamas Berecz

Tamás Berecz is an expert in the field of sociology and criminology. His main fields of research have been the media, specifically the racist tendencies towards the Roma in the Hungarian and international press. He was also heavily involved in the analysis of anti-terrorist legislation and its conflicts with human rights in the UK and other Western democracies after the Islamist terror wave of the 2000s.

Since the start of his professional career, Mr. Berecz has been researching violent extremism and online and offline hate speech and hate crimes both locally and globally. At the Athena Institute in Hungary, he participated in the preparation and conduction of major studies focusing on extremist groups in both Hungary and the whole of Europe. In his final two years at the Institute, he researched terrorist groups on a global scale and wrote two books on the most active and dangerous terrorist outfits in the world.

Since the beginning of 2016, Mr. Berecz has been working at the International Network Against Cyber Hate in Amsterdam, collecting data and conducting research on hate speech online. Furthermore, he is involved in the development of an international cyber hate database and complaints system.

Phil Gurski

Phil Gurski is the President and CEO of Borealis Threat and Risk Consulting (www.borealisthreatandrisk.com). He worked as a senior strategic analyst at CSIS(Canadian Security Intelligence Service)from 2001-2013, specializing in Al Qaeda/Islamic State-inspired violent extremism and radicalization. From 1983 to 2001he was employed as a senior multilingual analyst at Communications Security Establishment, specialising in the Middle East. He also served as senior special advisor in the National Security Directorate at Public Safety Canadafrom 2013 until his retirement from the civil service in May 2015, and asconsultant for the Ontario Provincial Police’s Anti-Terrorism Section (PATS)in 2015. Mr. Gurski has presented on Al Qaeda/Islamic State-inspired violent extremism and radicalization across Canada and around the world. He is the author of “The Threat from Within: Recognizing Al Qaeda-inspired Radicalization and Terrorism in the West” (Rowman and Littlefield) and the forthcoming “Western Foreign Fighters: the threat to homeland and international security”.He regularly blogs (Terrorism in Canada and the West –available on his Web site)and tweets (@borealissaves) on terrorism.

Dr. Andre Oboler

Dr Andre Oboler is CEO of the Online Hate Prevention Institute, Co-Chair of the Working Group on Antisemitism in the Media and on the Internet of the Global Forum for Combating Antisemitism, a Distinguished Visitor for the IEEE Computer Society and an expert member of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance. He also serves on the Executive of the Jewish Community Council of Victoria and a Councillor on the Executive Council of Australian Jewry. Dr Oboler holds a PhD in computer science from Lancaster University (UK) and a law degree from Monash University (Australia).